As the huddle broke after a timeout with about four minutes left in the fourth quarter of Saturday's Governor's Challenge matchup with Mardela's boys' basketball team, Dre Green walked over to the scorer's table and asked the bookkeeper how many points he had.

At that point, the junior guard from Cambridge South-Dorchester had been unstoppable and racked up 22 points, but he needed a little extra motivation to ensure that the Vikings kept their double-digit lead over the Warriors.

"I just tried to keep my focus and intensity up because coach (Vic Burns) tells us to never ease up," Green said. "We didn't really know much about Mardela. This is the first time we played them, so coach just told us to go out there and play hard at all times.

He added four points and a few more rebounds to add to his double-double total of 26 points and 12 rebounds as the Vikings rolled over a struggling and young Warriors team by a score of 63-34.

For Mardela (1-7; 0-5) the loss was their sixth straight by double digits since their opening season win against St. Michaels.

"We tried to keep it simple, but we're young and we panicked and sometimes when we panic things go really bad," Warriors' head coach Shawn Tucker said.

The Warriors were tied up with the Vikings (4-4; 3-1) in the first quarter, but then Green and his teammates starting rolling and ended the opening period on a 12-2 run. The Vikings continued their strong play and kept going on strong runs to increase their leads and eventually won by nearly 30 points.

One area where the Warriors were at a big disadvantage was on the boards. Aside from Green's 12 rebounds, junior center Ivan Taylor cleaned the glass to pick up 10 boards and overall the Vikings out-rebounded the Warriors by a margin of 40-26.

"We have to rebound by committee," Tucker said. "All five guys have to hit the board in order for us to be competitive."

Leading the way for the Warriors in the loss was Nate McCoy who had 18 points and eight rebounds and Zach Hyland who finished with 10 points — including a trio of three-pointers — and seven rebounds.

The Vikings have made a big turnaround so far in Burns' first season as head coach from where they were a year ago when they finished with a 7-12 record. They're on pace to finish over the .500 mark in the Bayside Conference's North division and it's in large part due to the mindset and culture that Burns — who previous coached at Washington — has installed to this Vikings' team.

"He pushes us, he's always on us and he's strong," Green said of his coach. "He's really like a father-figure to us; not all of us have fathers on the team. He's been a really big help and it's completely different from last year."

The Governor's Challenge has closed for both teams, and has ended with with back to back losses for the Warriors. They don't have time to rest though; when they return from the winter break the face an undefeated Parkside squad on Jan. 6.

Still, Tucker remains optimistic and is able to take away a few positives from the tournament.

"In spurts we showed intensity and we still ran our sets until the end of the game," he said. "Some teams hang their head and let it free fall, but we still fought."